


She's Got Booker

by Alitomy



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Booker gets tortured! Again!, Drowning, Gen, Torture, bc they CARE FOR EACH OTHER OKAY, i just write and post whatever comes out, more ot5 feels, pov switch bw booker and nile, protective nile, this kinda follows the comics but i havent read them soooo..., this may be a total shit show bc i dont write with a plot in mind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:54:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25710922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alitomy/pseuds/Alitomy
Summary: The team finds out about Quynh's kidnapping of Booker through Nile's dreams.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 244





	She's Got Booker

**Author's Note:**

> look, this is probably my limit on creatively writing Booker being kidnapped and tortured and saved by the team, but hey, hopefully it'll be in a blaze of glory and not a total bust?

He had accepted his punishment. 

One hundred years alone. 

He had come to terms with that through heavy drinking and erratic behaviour, barely escaping death each time. 

What he hadn’t expected was to stumble home drunk and find a young, Vietnamese woman calmly drinking water. He had entered the room with his gun aimed between her eyes, his hands steady even when his feet were not. 

“Booker, it’s nice to finally meet you,” she said, before raising the glass to her lips and taking a sip. Booker didn’t lower his gun and kept staring at her, unsure of the situation he found himself in. 

How? How did she get out? How did she find him? _Why_ did she come to him? 

He wanted to ask, but his tongue twisted in his mouth, making him stutter and mumble before ultimately deciding to shut up altogether. 

“Not with the others, I see,” Quynh stated, glancing around the room, not minding the gun still trained on her. “Why?”

“Why does it matter?” Booker lowered the gun slightly, now aiming at her chest rather than her head. 

“I had hoped that you would lead me to Andromache, since that’s how this works. You know, with all the whole ‘dreaming of each other’ thing that plagues us,” she huffed and placed her glass on the table, the condensation leaving a ring of water on the old wood. 

“I don’t know where they are. I can’t help you.” 

“Ah, see, that’s where you’re wrong, Booker. You _can_ help me,” she smirked. Booker felt a sharp pain at the back of his head, and then he saw nothing. 

“You _will_ lead me to Andromache.” 

~ 

Nile woke with a gasp as she clutched her throat, startling the others who lay in the beds beside hers. Breathing heavily, she closed her eyes and tried to retain as much of her dream as she possibly could. 

Quynh. She was dry and clothed. She was on a yacht, though she didn’t know where, and she had Booker. 

Oh god. 

“Nile? What happened?” Nicky’s voice broke her from her thoughts, and she looked up to find all three of them staring at her, wiping the sleep from their tired eyes. 

“Quynh,” she started, having trouble unscrambling the words in her brain before they all came tumbling out of her mouth like a clusterbomb. The words that came out that were coherent were, “Alive. Dry. Booker.” 

Andy sat up at her words, swinging her legs to drop over the side of her bed. “Quynh’s out?” 

Nile nodded. “She- She’s got Booker.”

“Where?” 

“I don’t know, on some yacht. I don’t know where,” Nile rubbed a palm over her face, trying to shake off the visions. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be silly,” Nicky said softly, sitting up and letting Joe’s arms fall off his side. “Quynh’s alive.” 

“Okay yeah, she’s alive. But you guys, she has _Booker_. He was... He was tied up. In chains. I think she’s going to put him overboard.” Nile’s eyes went wide as her thoughts took her to that conclusion. She didn’t want to think that that was what Quynh was planning with Booker but given the woman’s history of drowning for half a millennia, Nile would think she would want some revenge. 

“She wants to get to us through him,” Andy spoke as she stood up, pacing the small area, her hands running through her hair. “She hasn’t met you yet, Nile. Why wouldn’t she just find you?” 

“I’m already here with you guys. Booker was an easier target. If she tosses Booker overboard with no way to bring him back, we won’t find him. He’s met everyone. No one would dream of him. No one would know if he’s okay,” Nile said, shuddering at the thought of not _knowing_. “We need to go get him.” 

The three older immortals glanced at each other. Their weary eyes sharing many words without so much as a twitch of their lips. Nile looked between the two beds, growing more agitated by the second. How could they just leave Booker to the same fate as Quynh all those years ago? Granted it would be much easier to find something at the bottom of the ocean now than it was five hundred years ago, but Nile didn’t want to think of Booker dying over and over, knowing that his only thought would be welcoming each and every death. 

“If she’s taken Book, then she’s in France,” Andy spoke. “It’ll take a few hours to get there, and we don’t know what she’s planning to do with him.” 

Nile got out of her bed and starting collecting her belongings, grabbing clean clothes as she headed to the door. “I’m going to get dressed. Then we’re going to book some flights to France and save Booker.” 

The door closed behind her and all three persons remaining in the room glanced at each other for a second before they all started to move, Andy with a slight smirk on her face. 

~

By the time Booker was allowed to regain consciousness, he found himself wrapped tightly with chains, his hands and feet handcuffed so he couldn’t escape. As he slowly opened his eyes, his heart jumped. He was teetering over the edge of a super fancy yacht, the choppy waves of the dark ocean waters licking at his feet. 

“Nice of you to join us again, Booker,” Quynh said as she walked up behind him. “Hope you don’t mind the precautions we’ve taken to keep you… contained.” 

Booker scoffed. “I don’t have superpowers. What makes you think I’d be a threat?” 

He found himself being turned around rather harshly, so he was face to face with the woman. “You’re very skillful, Booker. I will not underestimate you. Besides, the worse you look in my company, the faster they’ll find you.” 

Booker wrung his hands together from behind his back, thinking that sentence over. He couldn’t help but let out a laugh. “They won’t be in a hurry.” 

Quynh’s eyes twinkled as she remained silent. Then, with a kick faster than the speed of light, Booker felt himself going overboard, crashing into the waves below. The heavy chains brought him downward, sinking him further and further into the depths. 

His lungs hurt. He saw the sunlight fade and fade until he closed his eyes and drowned. 

And he drowned. And he drowned. And he drowned. 

~

Booker regained consciousness with a gasp of air as his body was yanked out of the water and thrown onto hardwood. Taking a minute to regain control of his breathing alongside his bearings, he spat out the remaining seawater in his mouth before looking up at Quynh. 

“I know what you’re thinking. Sooner or later it’ll be the last,” she said, picking at her cuticles. “Well let me tell you something, Booker. I have died more times than I can count, and I am still standing.” 

She walked over to him as one of her henchmen held him down, crouching down and moving his long hair from over his eyes. “It’ll be a lot longer yet before you can even _think_ about a death being your last.” 

“Our circumstance does not make us the same. Our time will come,” Booker coughed slightly before he went lax under the henchman’s foot. The corner of his lips moved slightly upwards as he spoke, remembering how Nicky said similar words in that damned lab. 

“Yes, it will. But not before I’ve got answers, and my revenge,” Quynh stood up and nodded, and Booker felt himself being forcefully pulled up off the ground. Not much time passed before he was thrown back overboard, the cold, dark abyss accepting him whole. 

~

It took the team a few days to travel to France and track down the yacht using Nile’s dreams. By the time they paid a fisherman for his boat, it was nearing dusk, and they quickly set out on the choppy waters towards the rather spectacular yacht. Andy steered the boat, looking as stoic as ever yet Nile knew she was nervous. 

For fucks sake, she was seeing Quynh for the first time in over five hundred years. 

That was a lot to process. 

Nile felt her own stomach churning as they got closer and closer, and the shadows of a body being pulled out of the water made her suck in a breath. 

“Andy..” 

“I know.” 

They pulled up to the yacht and were greeted with lasers aimed at their chests, and the sound of Booker coughing up his lungs. Andy turned off the motor and they drifted on the water before Nile saw a Vietnamese woman poke her head over the side of the yacht, instantly making eye contact with Andy and not letting go. 

“Let them board,” she said before walking out of sight. Nile didn’t like to make assumptions before meeting the woman, but something already felt off about her and the entire situation they found themselves in. 

_’For Booker,’_ she reminded herself. _’No matter what the others say, I’m here for Booker.”_

As they boarded, they were instantly met with armed guards aiming at them and following their every move. Nile’s eyes went straight to Quynh, who had Booker lying at her feet. 

_’He looks so cold,’_ she thought as she noticed how soaked he was and how violently his body shivered in the frosty winds. He looked so tired, still in the chains that she had seen in her dreams, and she wanted nothing more than to get him the fuck off this boat and warm him up. 

“Look, Booker! I was right, they _did_ come for you,” Quynh grabbed a fistful of Booker’s hair and forced him to look at the newly boarded guests. “You were helpful after all, though now you have no use to me.” 

From her peripherals, Nile saw Joe and Nicky slightly readjust their stances, and Andy’s fingers twitched towards the handgun she kept hidden, tucked under her belt. Nile angled herself so that she was in front of Andy, not wanting to possibly say goodbye to two of her friends today. They hadn’t taken Quynh’s words lightly, preparing themselves for a fight before any true confrontation had begun. 

“Let him go, Quynh,” Andy said firmly. “You said it yourself, we’re here now. So let him go.” 

Quynh met Andy’s eyes and smirked. “Andromache, my love, how so very nice to finally see you again after all these years. Tell me, why did you stop looking for me?” 

“I didn’t! _We_ didn’t! Every single spare moment of my life has been used to look for you! I spent years, no, centuries looking for you,” Andy raised her voice slightly, moving closer. Nile’s gaze flickered between the raging woman and Booker, who’s tired eyes were scanning the group, screaming _’Why did you come?!’_. 

“Quynh, let him go,” Nicky said, as calm as ever in complete contrast to the women who were now screaming at each other, completely ignoring him. He glanced at Joe, then at Nile. They had formed a plan with a simple nod of the head, and they attacked. 

With Andy out of the firing line of the enemies, the trio shot, stabbed and fought until they were all dead. Nicky took care of the snipers he had noticed from the upper decks, and Joe and Nile handled the others with ease, the crimson blood covering the entire deck and even down the sides of the yacht. 

Panting, Nile looked up and saw Andy struggling against a hold Quynh had on her, a dagger dangerously close to her chest right over her heart. Gritting her teeth, she sprinted across the deck and tackled Quynh to the ground, knocking the dagger out of her grip and restraining her hands and legs with her body. 

“Don’t you fucking dare touch her,” she snarled. “Her death would be on _you_.” 

“Oh please. Andromache, you have a baby protecting you? Get off me!” Quynh screamed, struggling against Nile’s weight. 

“Andy is mortal now! She can’t heal anymore!” 

“Nile.” Andy placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled her back. “It’s okay.” 

“Are you serious?” 

“If this is how it’s meant to end, then it is my time.” Andy looked down at Quynh who had crawled over to the dagger that had flown out of her hands. Nile glanced over to Nicky and Joe, who had just finished unchaining Booker and were now supporting his weight, though not without a gun in their free hands. Nicky looked rather distraught as if his words had been used to slaughter Joe instead of nonchalantly used in front of an armed opponent, not opposed to a possible final death. 

“You lie,” Quynh mutters, eyes darting between Andy and Nile. “You can’t be.” 

“I am,” Andy confirmed, lifting up her shirt to reveal the scar from Booker’s gunshot, much to the despair of the man a few meters away, who let out a pained whine. He didn’t need the reminder. “You can come with us, Quynh. Let us help you.” 

And well, Nile couldn’t help but see the irony in that.

~ 

Once on dry land, after a long discussion with Quynh trying to convince her of their help, they made their way to their Paris safe house on the outskirts of the city. Once inside, the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife. 

Or in this case, about five different blades. 

Nile took it upon herself to usher Booker into the bathroom and into the shower, much to the despair of the man who tried to deny. Neither had said a word the entire trip back but being the only two without a partner, they buddied up. 

Booker’s fingers shook like no tomorrow, and with a frustrated groan, he slapped he tiled wall. He knew Nile was still in the small bathroom with him, and out of courtesy he hadn’t completely stripped out of his soaked clothing, but she had already been the subject to his incompetencies and now he can’t do something so simple as turn on a shower. 

Now his hands shook for an entirely new reason. He felt warm hands on his and he was pulled out of the shower, a fluffy towel placed around his shoulders instead, and a hand rubbing on his arm to try and warm his ice-cold skin. 

He felt numb. Completely numb. 

So many thoughts and feelings where running through his mind right then, not aware of how to process them properly before he felt more pairs of hands surround him on the bathroom floor. Blinking, he looked around blearily and noticed the extra blankets now wrapped around him tightly, and the arms of Nicky wrapped around his waist from behind. Joe had just finished wrapping yet another blanket around his legs and feet, before sitting to his side and brushing his hair from his eyes. 

“I’m-” 

Three voices immediately told him to shut up in three different languages, but all in the same, fond tone. He bit his lip and tried not the burst into tears. His team, his family, were here, making sure he was okay. 

Even after what he did to them, only half a year ago. 

“We’re here for you Booker,” Nile said softly, guiding his face to look at her. “We’re not going to let you slip away from us again.” 

Booker was sure the conversation would come up again once he was of sound mind, but for now, he relished in the familiar contact he had missed so dearly. 

Each and every touch was to remind him that he did have people that loved him, that cared for him. 

_’For better of for worse,’_ Booker thought to himself before he closed his eyes, drifting off into his first dreamless sleep for more than two hundred years.

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on tumblr: alit0my


End file.
